Landmarks Preservation Commission November 16, 1993, Designation List 255 LP-1887

ANTHONY CAMPAGNA ESTATE 640 West 249th Street, . Built 1929-1930; architect Dwight James Baum. Landmark Site: Borough of The Bronx Tax Map Block 5914, Lot 315.

On June 2, 1992, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a public hearing on the proposed designation as a Landmark of the Anthony Campagna Estate and the proposed designation of the related Landmark Site (Item No. 3). At the request of the owner, the hearing was continued to December 8, 1992 (Item No. 2). Both hearings were duly advertised in accordance with the provisions of law. At the two hearings, there were eight speakers in favor of the designation and none in opposition; the then owners took no position. The current owners have not taken a position on designation.

DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS

Summary

The Anthony Campagna Estate was built in 1929-30 in the Riverdale section of the Bronx as the home of this prominent Italian-born City builder and philanthropist. The work of Dwight James Baum, a leading architect praised for his carefully conceived and executed suburban and country residences, the house is modeled after Italian villas, an unusual prototype for New York City. The elements of the landscape design, by Ferruccio Vitale, an Italian-born landscape architect, and his partner Alfred Geiffert, Jr., were also based on Italian prototypes, in keeping with the design of the house, and won the 1934 gold medal in landscape architecture from the Architectural League of New York. The design of the house and grounds, on a site overlooking the Hudson River to the Palisades, is one of Baum's most impressive and is a major example of 1920s architectural eclecticism by a recognized master of the genre. Thus the Anthony Campagna Estate is a major example of the integration of house and setting, virtually unparalleled for its period in New York City. In addition, it takes its place among the large estates that have distinguished the history of Riverdale over the past century and a half, competing in size and magnificence with the most lavish of its predecessors. Anthony Campagna 1 him the title of Count of Castelmezzano, bestowed Anthony Campagna (1884-1969) was one of by King Victor Emmanuel III of in 1930. Manhattan's most prominent developers of Given Campagna's devotion to the culture and apartment houses during the 1910s and 1920s. history of his native country, it is not surprising Born in Castelmezzano, Italy, Campagna took a that when he decided to build himself a new home law degree in and then immigrated to the in the Riverdale section of the Bronx in 1928, he United States. After working in Chicago, first in would choose the Italian villa as a model and journalism and then as a lawyer, he moved to New select a highly successful architect who specialized York in 1909 to work for the construction firm of in historical styles. Paterno Brothers, apartment house builders. After Dwight James Baum3 marrying Marie Paterno, Campagna formed his own company, the Campagna Construction Dwight James Baum (1886-1939) was one of Corporation, and continued successfully in the the most productive and successful architects same line for several decades. working in historical styles during the early decades of this century. Born in Little Falls, New Campagna's most active period as a builder York, he studied architecture at Syracuse coincided with the enormous boom in apartment University, graduating in 1909. He opened his as house construction that followed World War I, own office in New York City in 1914, establishing large apartment houses sprang up in many areas of himself as a talented and versatile designer. Manhattan, particularly along Fifth and Park avenues on the East Side and along West End Baum designed a number of public and Avenue and Riverside Drive on the West Side. institutional buildings, including several at Campagna became involved in the acquisition and , Syracuse Memorial Hospital, redevelopment of major sites in both areas. His the Federal Post Office Building in Flushing, company built a number of large prominent Queens, and the West Side Y.M.C.A. Building on buildings on Fifth and Park avenues, including 960 West 63rd Street in Manhattan (located within the Fifth ( and Warren & Wetmore, /Central Park West Historic 1929), a "luxury" building with apartments so District). He is best known, however, as a large they were comparable in size to private designer of suburban homes and country estates. houses;2 and 173-175 Riverside Drive (J.E.R. The geographic extent of his practice varied from Carpenter, 1926), occupying the entire blockfront Newport, R. I. , where he designed a villa for between 89th and 90th streets. Count Alphonso, to Sarasota, Florida, where he built 's mansion, "Ca' d'Zan," and As he became successful and wealthy, maintained a satellite office in the late 1920s; Campagna turned to philanthropy. Most of his however, the majority of his residential efforts were directed to institutions in Italy or to commissions were in the New York City area those in New York with Italian connections. He including the Hammerstein House, a designated helped raise funds for the restoration of Virgil's New York City Landmark. In 1923, he received tomb in Naples, and for a Roman tower in the Medal of Honor from the Architectural League Minturno. He made contributions to the Italian of New York "for the simplicity and charm of his Historical Society in Rome, and for the residential work. "4 excavations of Roman ruins at Herculaneum. In New York City, besides serving as a director A master of architectural eclecticism as it was without pay of a city school construction program, practiced in the 1920s, Baum was adept in a wide he donated a site at Fifth A venue and 106th Street variety of styles, though his own preference was in 1929 to the Italian Hospital (never built because "American Colonial. "5 A 1927 monograph on of the Depression) and played a major role in the Baum's work categorizes his houses by "types": creation of the Casa ltaliana at Columbia Colonial, Formal Georgian, Italian, English (i.e., University (the structure was built by his firm). Tudor), and Dutch Colonial. Matlack Price, who His work on behalf of Italian institutions earned

2 wrote the brief text, explained the meaning of the in other parts of Riverdale including the Thomas word "type," using the Italian villa as an example: A. Buckner, Jr., residence at 5200 Sycamore Avenue in what is now the Riverdale Historic A typical Italian villa could be found District, and such non-residential projects as the only in Italy. When we adapt the local firehouse, the Christ Church Parish House, type here, as a rrwtif, or manner of and an extension to the Riverdale Presbyterian design, rather than as a style or Church. rrwdel, we depart from the original in a great many ways, and build a Baum's Riverdale houses are carefully sited on house which in plan, in methods of landscaped plots. Depending on their style they construction, in materials, and in are faced in clapboard (Colonial), brick interior equipment is as different from (Georgian), stucco (Italian), or local fieldstone. an Italian villa as it is from an Their facades are romantic compositions of the Eskirrw 's igloo. Notwithstanding details appropriate to the chosen type: columns, which, it is perfectly intelligent to piers, capitals, porticoes, fanlights , chimneys, call it a house of the Italian type, Palladian windows, eyebrow windows, gambrel since the Italian villa was its point of roofs. According to architect Mario Campioli; departure. The same designation, who worked as a draftsman in Baum's office: based on the same sequence of "After talking to a client, [Baum] had a fixed idea thought, applies equally to our in his mind of the house he wanted to do, and he'd American adaptations of any other draw the elevation and then try to make the plan European style. 6 fit it. "8 For houses with large sites, Baum This approach would be embodied two years later carefully planned and designed gardens and outbuildings. in Baum's design for the Campagna house. The Campagna House: Baum's mastery of traditional styles was An "Italian Villa" in Riverdale praised by the modernist architect Harvey Wiley Corbett, in a preface to the same monograph: Riverdale, the section of the Bronx in which Campagna built his Italian villa, was incorporated It is only the exceptional architect into the city of New York in 1875 and developed who has the force of will and the in the mid- to late-nineteenth century as a adventurous spirit to roam through picturesque suburb of villas for well-to-do all styles and all periods and make Manhattan merchants and financiers . When fifty himself master of them all. And it years later Campagna, who was already living seems to me that this is the signal elsewhere in the neighborhood,9 decided to build achievement of Dwight James Baum on West 249th Street, Riverdale still retained much in the realm of domestic architecture. of its atmosphere of country estates nestled into the He has had the spirit and the guts to woods overlooking the Hudson. Campagna's site tackle Colonial, Georgian, Italian, was located directly across from , the Tudor, etc., and to emerge in every first Riverdale estate which itself dated to the early case with banners flying. 7 1840s, and was surrounded by other large houses Baum lived for much of his professional life in and estates. To the north, along Independence and Fieldston, a planned suburban development in Sycamore avenues between West 252nd and 254th Riverdale, the Bronx, where he designed both his Streets, were the houses of the original 1850s house, "Sunnybank," located at the northwest development from which Riverdale takes its corner of Goodrich A venue and West 250th name. 10 To the south, along West 247th Street, Street, and his office on Waldo Avenue at were the houses of a slightly later development, Manhattan College Parkway. The great majority Riverdale Park. Campagna's estate would take its of Baum's work is to be found in Riverdale, place among the large estates that had including dozens of houses in Fieldston as well as distinguished the history of Riverdale, competing in size and magnificence with the most lavish of its

3 predecessors. Campagna purchased a three-acre quite similar in character to the hillside locations site in 1928 from Percy R. Pyne, whose estate of Frascati. " 15 Thus the Anthony Campagna "Alderbrook" was located just to the south. 11 Estate is a major example of the integration of Campagna's choice of Dwight James Baum as house and setting, virtually unparalleled for its architect was a logical one. Baum's practice and period in New York City. reputation in Riverdale was highly esteemed, and The landscape design of the Campagna estat~ he had designed a house for Anthony Campagna's was the work of landscape architects Vitale & brother Michael and was planning a house for Geiffert. Ferruccio Vitale (1875-1933) was an another brother, Armino A. Campagna. 12 Italian immigrant who was born in Florence and Furthermore, Baum's expertise in adapting had studied landscape architecture and engineering European styles made him eminently suited to the in Italy. He began his American career in 1904, task of designing an "Italian villa" in the Bronx. and his American work included private estates, as Campagna himself handled the contracting, and well as Meridian Hill Park in Washington, D.C., imported many of the materials directly from Italy. and plans for the towns of Pleasantville and There is some indication that the office of architect Scarsdale, New York. Alfred Geiffert, Jr. John Russell Pope may have had a hand in the (c.1881-1957) joined Vitale's firm in 1908, design, but its role is unclear. 13 Baum and becoming a partner in 1917. He was a member of Campagna received a building permit for the the board of design for both the Chicago Century construction of a fireproof, steel-framed residence of Progress, held in 1933, and the New York of brick (to be covered with stucco) and Doria World's Fair of 1939. 16 Vitale's writings on the limestone. 14 A second permit was received for subject of Italian garden design for American the construction of a garage and chauffeur's settings mirror Matlack Price's thoughts on the quarters to be located at the east end of the site. Italian "type" in American architecture: "I would Construction on both was completed in 1930. say that rather than copy them [Italian gardens] as The large site, picturesque setting, and a whole or in detail, we should draw a lesson from knowledgeable client gave Baum the opportunity to them -- an inspiration. . .. the architect should ... create one of his most impressive residential [try] to conceive something of his own, rather than 17 designs. Though the house that Baum designed is copying or patching-up copied details. " clearly suggestive of Tuscan villas, it is not The Vitale & Geiffert landscape design for the modeled directly on any known example. Great Campagna estate incorporates a long allee of trees stone piers at the entrance from West 249th Street flanking the paved driveway leading from the lead to a walled circular forecourt with a central entrance gates to the circular forecourt and fountain; the forecourt facade combines a one­ fountain at the front of the house, and a reflecting story rusticated stone portico containing the pool and flanking garden walls that incorporate entrance vestible, a two-story asymmetrically fountains. This design won the gold medal from placed stairtower, and a projecting eastern wing, the Architectural League of New York for sheltered by a low hipped, tile-covered roof. The landscape architecture in 1934, for "the Approach garden facade incorporates a triple-arched loggia and Garden Courts for an Italian Villa at with grotteschi painted in its groin vaults; it is set Riverdale, New York City. "18 on a raised terrace which leads to a formal garden Other work contributing to the character of the with a reflecting pool. The house is surrounded house includes the ironwork of the front gates, by wooded grounds, and it looks over the Hudson balconies, and exterior stairways designed by River to the Palisades. The site itself was Oscar B. Bach (1884-1957). 19 An active iron considered to be suggestive of Italian hills. designer in the 1920s and 1930s, Bach worked at According to a note in the Riverdale News, Radio City Music Hall (where he designed the published while the estate was under construction, colorful repousse plaques on its facade), the "it is reported that this will be one of the finest Empire State Building, and the Williamsburgh estates along Italian lines in the country. The house was built on one of the finest sites, which is

4 Savings Bank, 1 Hanson Place, Brooklyn (all The axial composition of the site continues on designated New York City Landmarks). 20 the garden side from the loggia, down a divided The Campagna house, its setting, and its Italian semi-circular stairway into a sunken garden area and along a large reflecting pool to a hemicycle character brought it much renown. In 1939 the with fountains. The pool garden area is flanked on WPA-sponsored Guide to New York City described either side by raised terraces; one is balustraded it as "one of the finest villas in the East. The and looks towards the river, and other is fronted house was designed ... in Northern Italian by an arcade which once enclosed an orangery. Renaissance style, with stucco trim and a hand­ made Italian tile roof. "21 Subsequent History Description Campagna lived in the house until 1941, when The Campagna estate is axially organized with he and his family left it to move into the former garage and chauffeur's quarters -- possibly as a an allee leading to the two-story house and formal result of the Depression-era construction slump. landscape elements. The main axis of the In 1943, Campagna leased the house to New York composition begins at the stone and iron entrance University, for use as a dormitory for women gates on West 249th Street. A drive of stone "taking a special course in connection with war pavers set between the allee of trees leads to a 22 walled forecourt with a fountain in the center. activities. " In 1946, the house was sold to th~ Monitor Equipment Corporation, for use as The house, as seen from the forecourt side, is executive offices and a corporate institute.23 asymmetrical with a two-story stairtower to the left of the entrance balanced by a low wing on the Monitor continued in the house into the 1960s, right. The one-story entrance portico in the center when the company went bankrupt; in settlement of is rusticated limestone and consists of an arched money owed him, Monitor's president, George M. doorway, flanked by narrow arched windows. Gibson, accepted ownership of the house. He in This central portion is surmounted by a balustrade turn sold it in 1982 to Eugene and Arlene Kule. 24 fronting the recessed central portion of the second The house was purchased in June, 1993 by the story. The tower contains a tall arched window current owner, the Yeshiva of Telshe Alumni. opening shielded by a balustrade. The wall surfaces on the forecourt side are faced with stucco Report prepared by with stone quoins and molded stone windows Anthony W. Robins, surrounds. The low hipped roof is covered with Director of Special Projects, tile. and The garden side of the house, set on a terrace, Marjorie Pearson, is dominated by the triple-arched loggia in the Director of Research center of the first story, balanced on either side by stone enframed window openings set in wide stuccoed wall spaces. Large stone quoins mark the corners. A band course above the loggia divides the elevation horizontally. The second story window openings have stone surrounds; those at the end are shielded by iron balconies. Set back from the main section are wings with arched openings surmounted by balustrades fronting the recessed second story. The wide overhang of the tiled roof is particularly noticeable on this side of the house.

5 NOTES

In addition to the specific notes cited below, see also Landmarks Preservation Commission, Research files, in particular "The Anthony Campagna Estate, Riverdale, New York, A Compilation of Information," prepared by Andrew S. Dolkart and Ken Lustbader, August 1993, for the Riverdale Nature Preservancy and submitted to the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

1. The information in this section has been compiled from: "Campagna, Anthony," National Cyclopedia of American Biography (Clifton, N.J.: James T. White & Co., 1973), vol. 54, 435; "Anthony Campagna Dies at 84; Led School Building Program," New York Times, Nov. 1, 1969, p. 47.

2. See Andrew Alpern, Apartments for the Affluent (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1975), 122-123.

3. Information for this section has been compiled from The Work of Dwight James Baum, Architect, foreword by Harvey Wiley Corbett, introduction and commentary by Matlack Price (New York: William Helbum, Inc., 1927); Arthur Hammerstein House Designation Report (LP-1282), report prepared by Marjorie Pearson (New York: City of New York, 1982); Anthony Robins, "Visible City:[Fieldston in Riverdale]," Metropolis, December 1984, pp. 34-39.

4. Quoted by Matlack Price in his introduction to The Work of Dwight James Baum, n.p.

5. The vast majority of houses pictured in The Work of Dwight James Baum fall into this category.

6. The Work of Dwight James Baum, n.p.

7. Ibid., n.p.

8. Interview with Mario Campioli, quoted in Robins, "Visible City," 39.

9. See "Real Estate Activities Along the Hudson," Riverdale News, July 1930, p. 6, for a notice of Campagna's sale of his former home in Fieldston.

10. See Riverdale Historic District Designation Report (LP-1663), (New York: City of New York, 1990), 7-11.

11. Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide, 121 (June 2, 1928), 34.

12. See "House of Michael Campagna, Fieldston, New York," American Architect, 133 (Feb. 5, 1928), 155; "HouseofMichael Campagna, Riverdale-on-Hudson, N.Y.," Architecture, 61(Feb.1930), 94-95; "House of Armino A.Campagna, Fieldston-on-Hudson, N. Y.," Architecture, 61 (Feb. 1930), 96.

13. The house was attributed jointly to Baum and the Office of John Russell Pope at the 49th annual exhibition of the Architectural League of New York, 1934, and Pope's name appears on plans of the house as consulting architect. See Yearbook of the Architectural League of New York, 49 (1934), 3; and "An Italian Villa at Riverdale, New York City," Landscape Architecture, 25 (Oct. 1934), 33-35. Also see Note 24 below.

14. New York City, Department of Buildings, The Bronx, New Building Permits 693-1929 and 834-1929. The steel contractor was the Patterson Bridge Co. While the garage and chauffeur's quarters structure is still standing, it is no longer on the tax lot associated with the main house.

15. "An Appreciated Architect," Riverdale News, August 1930, p.15.

6 16. For Vitale, see: "Vitale, Ferruccio," Dictionary of American Biography (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1943), vol. 19, 285-286; and "Vitale, Ferruccio," The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography (New York: James T. White Co., 1931), vol. 31, 106-107. For Geiffert, see: "Alfred Geiffert, Garden Designer, [obituary]" New York Times , Aug. 27, 1957, p. 29.

17. Ferruccio Vitale, "Italian Gardens," Transactions ofthe American Society ofLandscape Architects 1899-1908 (Pennsylvania: J. Thrace McFarland Co., 1908), 41-42.

18. Landscape Architecture, 24, no. 1 (Oct. 1934), 33.

19. Bach's work is cited in "Appliance Co. Buys the Campagna Mansion in Riverdale for Its New Research Center, " New York Times, April 14, 1946, section 8, p. 1.

20. See "Oscar Bach Dead; Metallurgist, 72," New York Times, May 5, 1957, p. 88.

21. Federal Writers Project, Guide to New York City (New York: Random House, 1939), 527.

22. New York City, Department of Buildings, The Bronx, Alteration Application 28-1943. The application was signed by Marie Paterno Campagna who was listed as the owner.

23. Alteration application 763-1945, which states: "Monitor Institute, Inc., (non-profit), a proposed subsidiary of Monitor Equipment Corporation to be organized to coordinate and promote the use of various househol~ equipment and to establish and maintain a central headquarters for the purpose of planning, research and study to facilitate the development and widespread use of Home Appliances. It requires a building ... to house a group of executives, scientists and others interested in the development of household appliances. There will be executive offices, conference rooms, a hall for meetings, reception rooms for out-of-town members and space in which to set up model installation in a home-like environment."

24. Prior to the sale, Gibson hired Bronx architect Ludwig P. Bono to convert the house back into a one-family residence ("Amendment of Jan. 29, 1982," submitted by Ludwig P. Bono, to the Department of Buildings, The Bronx. Bono submitted copies of original plans for the house with Baum's and Pope's names crossed out but still legible).

7 FINDINGS AND DESIGNATION

On the basis of a careful consideration of the history, the architecture, and other features of the building, the Landmarks Preservation Commission finds that the Anthony Campagna Estate has a special character, special historical and aesthetic interest, and value as part of the development, heritage, and cultural characteristics of New York City.

The Commission further finds that, among its important qualities, the Anthony Campagna Estate was built in 1929-30 in the Riverdale section of the Bronx as the home of this prominent Italian-born New York City builder and philanthropist; that it was the work of Dwight James Baum, a leading New York City architect praised for his carefully conceived and executed suburban and country residences; that the house is modeled after Italian villas, an unusual prototype for New York City; that the elements of the landscape design, by Ferruccio Vitale, an Italian-born landscape architect, and his partner Alfred Geiffert, Jr. , were also based on Italian prototypes, in keeping with the design of the house, and won the 1934 gold medal in landscape architecture from the Architectural League of New York; that the design of the house and grounds, on a site overlooking the Hudson River to the Palisades, is one of Baum's most impressive and is a major example of 1920s architectural eclecticism by a recognized master of the genre; that the Anthony Campagna Estate is a major example of the integration of house and setting, virtually unparalleled for its period in New York City; and that it takes its place among the large estates that have distinguished the history of Riverdale over the past century and a half, competing in size and magnificence with the most lavish of its predecessors.

Accordingly, pursuant to Chapter 21, Section 534 of the Charter of the City of New York and Chapter 3 of Title 25 of the Administrative Code of the City of New York, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designates as a Landmark the Anthony Campagna Estate, 640 West 249th Street, Borough of The Bronx, and designates Tax Map Block 5914, Lot 315, Borough of the Bronx, as its Landmark Site.

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Anthony Campagna Estate, 640 West 249th Street, The Bronx Landmark Site: Borough of the Bronx Tax Map Block 5914, Lot 315

Graphic Source: Bronx Land Book, vol. 2 (Redi-Real Estate Data, 1982) Anthony Campagna Estate 640 West 249th Street, The Bronx Garden facade Photo: John Barrington Bayley, c.1965 Anthony Campagna Estate 640 West 249th Street, The Bronx Entrance facade c.1950 Anthony Campagna Estate 640 West 249th Street, The Bronx Aerial iev lo king northwest c.1950 Anthony Campagna Estate 640 West 249th Street, The Bronx Entrance facade Photo: John Barrington Bayley, c.1965